Category: Figures

Hey folks! Sorry about the long wait since the last post… I’ve been too busy to do full-on figure reviews. But I’ve been active on Instagram working on my 365 project! Anyway, this weekend things finally started to wind down so I thought I’d work on some kind of project with my figures.

Sometimes I like to experiment with different shooting styles to jumpstart my creativity. While thinking of different looks I could explore one day, I saw an article about anamorphic lenses. Normally used for cinema, anamorphic lenses are placed in front of your regular lens to widen its horizontal field of view without affecting the vertical. You can find some old ones for $100-300 and get a clamp to fit them onto your own camera lens.

Let me tell you something: Kongou is the greatest. Her boisterous personality, random use of English, and ability to destroy the shit out of anything that stands in her way makes her, objectively, the greatest. However in the realm of anime figures, none of them really grabbed me. I missed out on the Nendoroid, and the other options ranged from slightly-too-rapey to straight up creepy. Eventually Phat Company came along with a Kongou figure that looked juuuust right, and we are all better off for it.

Since I’ve reviewed Forte, I thought I’d do a photo shoot for Kotobukiya’s Dark Angel Olivia as well. Both figures can best be described with the word “grand.” While Forte sports a pair of irresponsibly pointy lances, Olivia has twin swords and angel wings. The design is eye-catching enough in 2D, but Kotobukiya turned it into a figure truly worth owning.

I’ve never played Rage of Bahamut but I’ll be damned if there aren’t some fine character designs in that game. Kotobukiya has produced some excellent figures for the property, including the Dark Angel Olivia that originally turned me on to this game. I’ve also reviewed Max Factory’s Cerberus which is perhaps less awe-inspiring than just cute/sexy. In early July I received Kotobukiya’s Dark Dragoon Forte, which kind of looks like a sister piece to Olivia.

Odin Sphere hit the Playstation 2 way back in 2007. This makes me feel REALLY old. At the end of 2008, Alter released this Gwendolyn figure for the first time. This was way before I started collecting, but from what I gather this figure was quite ahead of its time in terms of the sculpt and quality. It became a grail figure for many, to such an extent that she was re-released in 2010 (before re-releases became a somewhat common practice). I missed out on that one too, but then the powers that be ordained that Odin Sphere would get a remake for the new console generation.

I was 90% sure I wasn’t going to write this post. Most of my SDCC photos turned out to be a bust; in fact I’m still not really happy with the keepers. But between the Bishoujo Lady Deadpool figure and the cosplay, I figured there was something worth posting.

Someone at Slickforce Studio reached out to me recently about a product designed for toy photographers. It’s an LED light with a stand and softbox, manufactured in a miniature scale suitable for figurines. I was intrigued by the possibilities this might provide, so I accepted their offer to ship me a sample. Slickforce very generously provided two units to play around with.

I admit I might have a problem. As I write this there are eight Shinobu figures on display behind me. Well, technically one is Kiss-Shot but yeah, same thing. While the character didn’t really become relevant until the very end of Bakemonogatari, she has kind of become the ultimate moe character for me. Kotobukiya’s rendition here isn’t their first, but it is their most recent. It got a bit lost in the shuffle as I was working on some home improvements when it first arrived. But finally I had the inkling to do a real photo shoot.